The present invention relates to a method of call forwarding a call originally destined for a mobile telephone to a landline telephone and, more particularly, to a method of call forwarding a call when the mobile telephone is at a known location.
Mobile telephones (e.g., cellular telephones) are radiotelephones using radio frequency (RF) signals. Such telephones are handheld portable devices or portable devices that are semi-permanently mounted in an automobile. Such telephones use a network of short-range transmitters and receivers located in overlapping cells throughout a region, with a mobile telephone switching office making connections to regular telephone lines or landlines. Mobile telephones are well known in the art.
Call forwarding is an option for landline telephones and mobile telephones. The call forwarding option enables a user to have a telephone call originally directed to a particular telephone number associated with a telephone redirected to another telephone number. Most call forwarding options for landline telephones require the user to dial a code or actuate a button on the telephone to which the call was originally directed, when the user wants to enable call forwarding. Most call forwarding options for mobile telephones require the user to enable the feature by dialing a feature enable number that will forward calls when the mobile telephone is either powered off or is “out of service” (i.e., not in close enough proximity to a base transmitter/receiver to be detected or to establish a bi-directional connection). One method and system for call forwarding is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,314.
Mobile location technologies exist for determining the geographic location of a particular mobile telephone. Currently, there are two primary ways of determining the location of a mobile telephone: by detecting the direction of the RF signal relative to one or more base transmitter/receivers or by global position satellite (GPS) transmitter/receivers that are separate and distinct RF signals in addition to the telephone RF signals. Mobile location technologies are being used by emergency response dispatchers, such as 911 dispatchers, to locate users who place emergency calls, but who cannot provide their location. Mobile location technologies are also being used by automobile service providers as a tool to locate users by means of the users' mobile telephones for the purposes of providing navigation assistance, emergency assistance, for identifying stores, restaurants, hotels and the like in relative proximity to the user, and for other similar reasons. Mobile location technologies may have other uses or applications such as determining vehicle traffic flow, determining base transmitter/receiver loading, asset tracking, employee tracking and the like. However, mobile location technologies themselves are not the invention identified herein and are only relevant as they pertain to a call forwarding method. Several mobile locations technologies are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,064,339, 6,084,546, 6,104,3344, 6,108,557, 6,101,390, 6,112,095, and 6,232,918 B1.
Another prior art device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,650 of Abidi et al. (“Abidi”). Abidi discloses a system and method for delivering a call for a mobile station using either wireless or a wireline (or landline) network. The disclosed system of Abidi includes a mobile station (or mobile telephone) and a cordless base station that is connected to a landline telephone network. When the mobile telephone is out of radio range of the cordless base station, the mobile telephone functions as a “normal” mobile telephone utilizing mobile base transmitter/receivers. However, when the mobile telephone is within detectable radio range of the cordless base, the mobile telephone switches to a cordless telephone mode and the cordless base automatically signals a service that will then forward all incoming mobile telephone calls to the cordless base via the landline telephone network in order to improve connections. The system of Abidi requires additional hardware for the cordless base and the mobile telephone and a dedicated landline telephone line for the cordless base.
What is not provided for in the prior art is a method of call forwarding that is used in conjunction with a mobile location technology so that a call originally placed to a mobile telephone number of a mobile telephone can be forwarded to a landline telephone number of a landline telephone when the mobile telephone is at a known location associated with the landline telephone as determined by a mobile location technology. Further, the prior art does not provide for a call forwarding method that only has to be setup or initialized once and then automatically determines when call forwarding should occur. Even further, the prior art does not provide for such a system that could function with existing mobile telephone hardware and that does not require additional mobile telephone hardware to implement.